September

September was sandwiched between a trip to Washington at the beginning of the month and a trip to Utah at the end of the month. In between, some activities of note included...

Ryan got to be star student in his class, which means he got to fill out a poster all about him, and he got to bring home Snowball, the class "pet."

 A few highlights:
I want to be a: JET PiLiT (pilot)
My favorite sport: KAROTE (karate)
I'm really good at: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 (he is really good at numbers; he amazes me often with his grasp of math that he hasn't been exposed to yet)
I love: Dad Mom CARS

The back side of his poster he drew Pigeon from Mo Willems' books, and wrote 2017 over and over. He loves his numbers. :)

He was SO excited to have Snowball with us for the weekend. But we didn't take any pictures with him, except for when the kids were playing with the camera.

 Ryan also started Karate as soon as we got back from Seattle. He loves the chance to punch and kick and yell.

 Movie night, I think...

 With the temple here in Tucson now, I was able to go to the temple on a few of the days when the kids had half days since Ryan actually stays at school later on half days than regular days (all kindergartners come for the whole time). But the week after we got back from Seattle Jake and I were able to attend together.

 It is still at least 45 minutes away from our house, so it's a 4 hour deal if we're doing a session (accounting for changing and getting there early since endowment sessions, but that's way better than a 7-8 hour day when we had to go to the Phoenix area. :) We look forward to attending more often here.

Most of my Sundays are pretty full because of Ward Council, BYC, PPIs and Laurel presidency meetings. One week I came out to my car at 3:00 after not having been home since 8:30 that morning to find that Jacob had brought the kids over to heart attack my car. It was a real nice surprise. :)

 Sometimes Rachel is just wierd...

 Megan loves open gym at the gymnastics place near us, but I don't take her as often as I should. I'll have to start taking her more often now since Annie just re-started gymnastics and Megan wants her turn to go play, and will be reminded every week now when we drop off Annie. :)

Megan has a love for all striped shirts, and deep feelings of antipathy for any shirt that doesn't have at least some stripes, unless they are Christmas themed. The shirt above has stripes on the sleeves. Since she was down to 2-3 shirts she would happily wear, we made a quick trip to Target, only to find a bunch of boys striped t-shirts on clearance. BONUS. We bought several and made this girl super happy.

I have never had a kid as super attached to me as Megan is. She is so sad every time I have to go to a meeting or to mutual or leave her in nursery or even just go to the store without her. She is happy and fine while I'm gone, but then as soon as I walk back in she lays on the guilt trip. "WHY did you go to __________ without ME?!" Every time. All the other kids had a younger sibling by the time they were this age, so I wonder if that has something to do with it. But I think it's also just part of her personality. She is super huggy and wants to be in my lap all the time. I try to remember it won't last forever, but sometimes I need some space. She is pretty darn, cute, though.

Washington trip--part 3

Sunday the kids got to play around for a little while before we had to get ready for church. Annie made a ball museum. Her cousins later came in and helped expand the operation.

 Sammy and Megan had a blast together.

 The kids really enjoyed being able to go outside without the oppressive heat (though it was a little too warm for comfort for some of the locals in mid-afternoon). We did need jackets in the mornings for the first few hours if we went outside. Quite the (nice) change from Tucson weather.

 Jacob and Baby Sasha read scriptures together...

 (Not sure if Megan instituted that or Jacob. ;)

Grandpa pulled out some video...

 and soon attracted all the grandkids.

 Monday morning we decided to go berry picking again since we'd be going home the next morning and we had to make the most of the free berries.

 Megan got tired and wanted a piggy back ride for a good portion of the walk.

 (Photo bomb!)
These kids filled UP on blackberries.

 We decided to take a ferry ride.

 Riding a huge boat full of cars across the ocean was a highlight for many, especially Ryan.

 We brought our swimsuits and played on the beach for a while before we had to catch the ferry back.

 There were shells and huge pieces of driftwood and lots of seaweed. Everyone had something awesome to spend their time hunting.

 Perhaps the coolest find were these dead tiny crabs.

 We dubbed them "Emoji Crabs" since their backs appear to have smiley faces on them.

The fun on the beach came to an end when Rachel somehow managed to get a huge piece of sand stuck up under her big toenail. Thankfully a fellow beach-goer happened to have cuticle cutters, so we used that to perform a mild surgery and cut her nail much shorter than was comfortable, but finally managed to get the small rock out.

We headed back home for a fire in the fire pit and hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire.

 It was so much fun visiting and everyone left wanting to stay a little longer, or come back soon. I think that's the sign of a good vacation.

Washington trip-part 2

Saturday we went to explore the woods that are close to Todd and Savannah's house and went blackberry picking.

 The kids loved the big trees and finding food they could eat while on a walk, but not the thorns on the blackberry bushes.

 We also walked down the street to visit the horses that live close by. For Sammy and Megan, climbing the fence was as exciting as seeing the animals.

 Notice the huge leaves Ryan was collecting, too. In Tucson the biggest leaves they see on a regular basis are probably the orange tree leaves. Most desert trees have leaves smaller than your pinkie nail.

 Todd let the kids try out his Virtual Reality toys.

 It was really cool and realistic. One of the games I tried involved riding on a cart through a Halloween carnival and I had to kneel down because I was having a hard time keeping my balance from all the movement my brain was perceiving.

 After lunch we headed down to Lake Washington, which was too cold for Megan's taste, so she spent most of the time chilling on the blanket with Jacob.

The other kids didn't let the water bother them and had lots of fun in both the water and the mud.

 Gangsta Jacob borrowed Sammy's hat, I think, to complete his look.

 We came back from the lake and got cleaned up to head over to the baptism. We tried for some pictures, but I didn't get any of the baptism boy's family on my camera. I think I was using theirs for them and apparently that took priority for some reason. ;) But I did get some of the kids and the girls and me and Jacob.

The baptism was nice and the kids all did a great job singing both verses of Families Can Be Together Forever. I am super impressed at how well Megan, in particular, learned it. I could even hear her belting it out with the other kids. :)

More VR after the kids were in bed. Jacob got to be a pretty good archer.